Hiddink: “As long as it’s possible we go for the fourth spot”

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink was disappointed with the 2-2 result against West Brom, but analysing the game he reckons it was fair:

“At the end I think it’s a fair result,” he said in the press conference after the game.

“Although in the first half, after going 1-0 up, we had a few chances to make it 2-0 which didn’t happen. Then we conceded an unfortunate goal, we let them penetrate too easily. They scored with two shots from outside the box, they were easy goals. The result is the result.

“The home crowd always want to win but it was a very entertaining game, high intensity, high speed and high tempo from both sides, but at the end we like to win. Especially with the week we have. We’re into the next round of the FA Cup and we have the Everton game on Saturday. It would have been the perfect week if we could have won all three, that was the target.

On Kenedy-Pedro substitution he said:

“We didn’t anticipate very well on the loss of the ball (for the first goal). We are now in a period where we want to give the youngsters some chances. Kenedy’s a young guy and was involved in our (second) goal. In the last game we brought on Loftus-Cheek and every now and then they must have this experience.”

About the battle of Diego Costa with WBA defenders:

“They were challenging each other. That’s their right, there was a bit of provoking but that’s their way. I didn’t see any bad things. If you have to push the players it’s difficult to survive in the Premier League. Every now and then if you have to control them it’s much better.”

Hiddink doesn’t believe the hopes for the fourth spot are over:

‘As long as it’s possible mathematically to get fourth position we will go for it. We have to win all our games, at home at least. We need an average of 2.8 points which is difficult. You have to win your games at home.”